1. Home
Iain Crichton Smith

2. Features to Consider: Characterisation Setting Language
Key incident(s)
Climax / turning point
Plot
Structure
Narrative Technique
Theme
Ideas
Description

3. Characterisation Main characters: Mr & Mrs Jackson
Snobby / rags to riches
Evidence of wealth (fur coat / posh car)
Look down on those left behind (‘had the guts to travel’)
Fall out but also look out for each other
Conflict between them highlights theme of story
Minor characters: The Jamiesons, the factor, Nicky & Charlie
Jamiesons – domestic violence / petty religious arguments / heavy drinking
The factor – tight with money / unsympathetic
Nicky & Charlie (‘punks’) – threatening / potentially violent. Tell the Jacksons they don’t belong (‘tourists’). Represent the change in the neighbourhood.

4. Setting
WHERE
Glasgow (mentions Clyde / references to gang culture – graffiti / blades / language / tenements
WHEN
1970s (shipbuilding / picture house / moustaches / overt racism)

5. Language
“Her face has a haggard...desiccated gypsy” (describing Mrs Jackson) – SIMILE
“like a victorious gladiator” SIMILE (Mr Jamieson)
“supermarkets...flexing huge muscles” PERSONIFICATION
“car bulging like a black wave” SIMILE
“his wallet bulged” WORD CHOICE

6. Language “with a hungry look as if he were scanning the veldt” SIMILE
“the flat-faced shops looked at them blankly” PERSONIFICATION
“her repertoire of invention was endless” WORD CHOICE
“lost its atmosphere of pastoral carelessness...literate slogans in flowers” JUXTAPOSITION

7. Language
“...as if even giving away words were an agony of the spirit.” WORD CHOICE
“the dispirited receptionist in the glass cage” METAPHOR
“The wee nyaff. The Scottish words rose unbidden to his mouth like bile.” SIMILE
“The interior of the cinema came back to him in a warm flood.” METAPHOR
“Remember it was me who drove you to the top.” (LITERAL AND METAPHORICAL)
“...like a bull wounded in the arena.” SIMILE
“...dirty boys and girls...all dead and rotting...” WORD CHOICE

8. Language
“...surrounded by a pack of children...an empress surrounded by prairie dogs.” METAPHOR / WORD CHOICE
“..the voice which was like a saw that would cut through steel forever.” SIMILE
“...no space in this bloody country. Everybody crowded like rats.” SIMILE
“in a place much like Africa, the bar of a first class hotel.” PARADOX
“his car bulging like a black wave.” ALLITERATION / SIMILE

9. Key Incidents Reminiscing at the tenements
Mr Jackson’s encounter with the factor (flashback)
The couple argue and Mrs Jackson returns to car
Mr Jackson threatened by youths
They go ‘home’ to the hotel

10. Climax / Turning Point
When Jackson is told by youths to get out of their neighbourhood. The Jacksons are called ‘tourists’ although they used to live there.

11. Plot Couple arrive at the tenement in Glasgow.
They reminisce and disagree
Realise they don’t belong / encounter the youths
They go to a hotel
Mr Jackson realises his true home is Africa (paradox at end of story)

12. Structure Mainly chronological
Use of flashbacks (contrast of past and present / poor and rich)

13. Narrative Technique Third person narrative
Flashbacks from Mr Jackson’s point of view
We get an objective view of the Jacksons and their views of ‘home’ – hear both their points of view

14. Themes
Belonging
Change
Home
Racism

15. Ideas Where is home? Once left, you should can never go back?
Whose memories are more reliable?
Success – does it bring happiness / contentedness?
Religion / sectarianism & associated violence
Domestic violence / alcohol abuse
Gangs / disrespectful youths
Class / roles within society
Racism
Colonial views
Cultural identity / language / background – still there when you scratch the surface. It cannot be ignored
Money doesn’t bring happiness

16. Description
Characters (appearance, belongings, reactions, thoughts and feelings)
Setting (time / place / atmosphere)
Attitudes (speech and actions reveal characters’ attitudes
Wealthy lifestyle of the Jacksons / rougher, working-class existence of the tenement residents
Differences / contrasts between Africa & Glasgow / Jacksons and their old neighbours
Of setting (time and place / atmosphere)